Lubumbashi is the capital of Katanga, the southernmost state of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The area also has an airport called Luano Airport that is located northeast of Lubumbashi. The University of Lubumbashi is the largest university in the province and one of the largest in the country. TESOL, the English Language School of Lubumbashi, is a secondary school that serves the expatriate community. It was founded in 1987 on the grounds of the now defunct French School. 

Huge trucks with cargoes of Copper and Cobalt roar through its streets, making their way to nearby Zambian border and via the Tanzanian port of Dar-es-Salaam to Asia and world over.  Every month new stores open: fast food joints with American names in Lubumbashi.

As prospectors and investors from all over the world grasp Katanga's enormous potential, the local authorities boast of its liberal mining regulations. It has estimated reserves of 5m tonnes of cobalt and 6m tonnes of zinc. Its estimated 70m tonnes of Copper put it behind Chile, which has reserves of 88m tonnes; but the DRC's deposits are of superior quality, yielding an average 3.5% Copper, compared with its Chile's 0.5%.